Breaking down Rangers’ draft after trade talks never gelled

DALLAS — Just like everyone else at this relatively sleepy NHL draft weekend, Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton had a lot fewer trade conversations than he anticipated.

And so Gorton went about his business, making all three first-round picks he had on Friday and finished having made 10 picks overall, leaving with his roster players still intact and a big few weeks in front of him.

“I would say I came here thinking we were going to make the picks and then see what would happen in the conversations. I would say there were probably less conversations than anticipated,” Gorton said after completing Rounds 2-7 on Saturday. “But it seems like there are some higher-end players in the league right now holding things back.”

But despite the rest of the league trying to figure out if they can land John Tavares, Erik Karlsson or Artemi Panarin, the Rangers still are committed to rebuilding through youth. Gorton was happy with his three first-rounders, starting with No. 9 overall, Vitali Kravtsov. Many put him lower in the first round, but Gorton knew who they wanted and they got him.

Now the Rangers just have to find a way to get Kravtsov over from the KHL and into the North American game, very similar to No. 21-overall pick from this past season, Filip Chytil.

“He’s a player that wants to be here sooner than later,” Gorton said. “I think that will help us.”

They then traded up four spots to take American defenseman K’Andre Miller (No. 22) and finished off the first round with Swedish defenseman Nils Lundkvist (No. 28).

“Feel like [Friday] was obviously a huge day for us, really excited about what we were able to do,” Gorton said. “[Saturday] was more about value and our list and getting guys with potential and we’re really high on. I think we were able to do that.”

That started with a bit of a surprising pick for their second-rounder, taking Swedish goalie Olof Lindbom at No. 39. The organizational depth at goalie obviously starts with Henrik Lundqvist, while 22-year-old Alex Georgiev should fight for the backup spot this season. They are also enamored with who is assumed to be Lundqvist’s heir apparent, Igor Shestyorkin, who has one more year in the KHL, where the 22-year-old has excelled.

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But when Day 2 of the draft started, Gorton made it clear his philosophy was just to take the best player available — no matter the position.

“We’re trying to take the best players on our list, and we had a goalie first overall of all the goalies in the draft by a long shot,” Gorton said of Lindbom, who will turn 18 on July 23 and has been playing in the Swedish junior league. “We thought, with our history with goalies and who we have in the organization that are able to develop goalies, that it would be a good pick. We’ll see.”

From there, the Rangers had two third-round picks, and started by taking 18-year-old Swedish defenseman Jacob Ragnarsson at No. 70. The 6-foot, 176-pounder was born in California before moving to Sweden, and his father, Marcus, played parts of nine season in the NHL with the Sharks and Flyers.

The Blueshirts then followed by taking Canadian blue-liner Joey Keane with No. 88. The 18-year-old was a third-team All-Star while playing for OHL Barrie, putting up 12 goals and 44 points in 62 games.

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Things rounded out by taking two more defensemen, Nico Gross (No. 101) and Simon Kjellberg (No. 163), plus two wingers in Lauri Pajuniemi (No. 132) and Riley Hughes (No. 216). Gorton didn’t have a seventh-round pick, but made a trade to grab Hughes, a high-school kid out of St. Sebastian’s in Boston.

And that ended a relatively quiet weekend, one in which the Rangers didn’t do anything drastic. But they hope they made their organization better than when they came in.

“I’m never going to sit up here and say I’m not excited because we just drafted 10 players and we felt good about every one of them,” Gorton said. “Time will tell. I’d be naive to sit here and tell you they’re all great because we don’t know. We’ll find out as we go forward.”